With the firing of Anthony Cumia from the Opie and Anthony Show, SiriusXM has started down a very dangerous path that could ultimately help other audio entertainment mediums gain traction from ex-SiriusXM subscribers.

In the early days of satellite, the concept was novel and engaging. It was the little guy (satellite radio) against the big machine (terrestrial radio). SiriusXM was new, relevant, diverse, and free while terrestrial radio was tired, old, homogenized and static. It appears, in many ways, that SiriusXM has "grown up" to become the very thing it was fighting against and the firing of Cumia simply makes that transition visible, even though the transition has been happening for a few years now.

Channels that were very niche have been removed in favor of channels that carry more listener potential. Howard Stern is down to a 3 day work week and more vacation days than the average person gets in 3 years. The activities on the "shock-jock channels have been limited more and more, and it even got to the point where Opie and Anthony could not even play a clip from the Stern Show.

On the music front, specialized DJ's with a focus in a genre were let go in favor of DJ's that would do 3 or even 4 shows ranging from easy listening to heavy rock. Yes, satellite radio still has great content, but the service is slowly but surely forcing consumers to branch out.

Podcasting is nothing new, but it is gaining momentum. Perhaps one of the more noteworthy and famous podcasters is Adam Carolla. Here is what he had to say about the firing of Cumia:

"I feel bad that Anthony got shit-canned, I hate this world that we've created where everyone just s***-cans everyone for everything. I think there's a way that we can disagree with what he said or the language that he used but still make that his choice. His words and his experience. And move on from it. I don't like this thing where it's like: we don't like you because you said this and you used those words, and now you must be relieved of your livelihood.

Either way, we have built a pirate ship here and we can never be fired. That's the good news. Secondly, it is scary to me when the people who go off to become the alternative -- the SiriusXM, satellite, the hey, this is our uncensored world. That was part of the sell, right? We get to say f***, we get to say c***, we can say what we want. We don't have to worry about the FCC. It's weird when the people who break off to fight against the man become the man. And it sounds to me like SiriusXM has become the man."

Whether or not you like Anthony Cumia is not the issue. Whether or not you agree or disagree with what he said is not the issue. The issue here is that SiriusXM has started down a path that will present more and more problems as time passes. Where does it stop? If Niclole from the Morning Mash-Up says the wrong thing wheat will happen? If Ron Bennington steps out of line this weekend, what will happen. If Gary from the Stern Show gets a little too liberal with language will he be fired? What If Howard Stern appeared in BlackFace and made racial statements... oh... he did that!

SiriusXM is walking the fine line of trying to be politically correct for everyone when what they should be doing is marketing themselves as a celebration in diversity, varied opinion, and standing proud of the fact that they can be a platform for controversial things that traditional audio entertainment outlets will not touch.

Anthony Cumia is one man. His opinions will not resonate with everyone. The fact of the matter is that if anyone's opinions were to resonate with everyone you would likely have a stale and boring show. The company fired Cumia, on July 3rd, yet, it was just today, July 9th that the company removed Cumia's Twitter feed from its own website and even now, with those edits in place, the channel still describes the show in the following manner:

Outrageous, edgy, and unpredictable are just a few of the words used to describe Opie & Anthony. But the show is much more than shock and awe. Incisive commentary, awkward encounters, celebrity guests, and regular visits from the world’s top comics make it must-listen morning entertainment. Listen live weekdays at 6:30 am ET, with replays throughout the day.

Anthony Cumia will be starting a podcast titled "Live From The Compound" and certainly will get a good following. There are many passionate fans that are cancelling their subscriptions to SiriusXM and plan on following Cumia to the world of Podcasts. Cumia has not yet determined the platform, but rest assured, the addition of Cumia to any service will get traction overnight.

Adding to the drama is the fact that the Opie & Anthony Show on SiriusXM has its contract expire in just a few months. There is a distinct possibility that we could see the entire show make the migration. If that happens, the edgy talk content on SiriusXM will be substantially less attractive as an offering. Yes, Ron & Fez, Stern, Jay Thomas, and Jason Ellis will still be on SiriusXM, but aside from Stern, these other talented individuals do not have the same name recognition as the O & A show.

The next few weeks will be quite interesting. It will be also interesting to see what SiriusXM does the next time a talent on its airwaves says something considered "over the line". Stay Tuned!

Who else is talking about it?

21 Responses to “SiriusXM Just Made Podcasts and Other Music Services More Relevant”

That was such a crock of sh!t article. Way to turn an “Ant” hill into a mountain.

The line IS clear with SXM. So much on air freedom it’s amazing. You can swear all you want and be crude enough to turn off 90% of average listeners but when you enter the realm of racism and bigotry you are no longer a Shock Jock you are a terrible person.

How is calling someone a cunt a racist remark? I’m not a huge fan of O&A but I did scurry to read the tweets before they were deleted and all I saw were rantings that could have applied to any human being regardless of their race.

You sir, are an idiot. A quick listen of moments from O&A will quickly show that much clearer and overt racism had been on the show for years and Siriusxm did nothing. Anthony calls a person acting savagely a savage, off the air and on his own, and gets fired for it. The height of hypocrisy! And you- you are the worst person of all for endorsing this naziism.

Not sure how you are getting attention with this dribble when the basic fact is SXM knows their listening audience numbers realtime based on connection. He was pounced on a firing in the most opportunistic way. No business degree required to figure that out.

Second, regarding SXM knowing audience numbers per show/channel: That only applies to internet radio subscribers which is a small percentage of subscribers to start with. The radios we all get in our new cars are receivers only, they do not “phone home”. The SXM staff play statistics games to come up with a number they want.

This is why when management gets on the air and tell some hosts like Jason Ellis “You have *Millions* of people listening every day!” as if it is a fact, even they don’t believe it.

When someone writes that the reason one subscribes to Sirius XM is for the “the edgy talk content on SiriusXM” and a good case for a reason it could hurt them with current and future subscribers, I call that “dribble”. (the comedy channels and a couple shock jocks?).

Online internet content is a sampling and a pretty good one especially with those morning junkies that need to connect during morning work hours to listen to their favorite nut job. Perhaps enrolling in a statistics class or helping Sarah Palin run her next campaign will help you understand this concept.

Your third point reinforces the concept of positive messaging or the tail wagging the dog or popularity pumping, also as opportunistic as firing a weak link at the right moment.

SiriusXM can only estimate audience based on those that stream the service over the web. They have no way to know if your satellite radio is on or off, and further, have no way to know what channel you are listening to.

Wolf Child you obviously don’t have the first clue about what has been said on-air at SiriusXM not just by Anthony but by many many DJ’s across the platform. That creep Stern has made a living off doing racial humor and the company had no issue, his employees from Gary to Artie to Sal have used completely derogatory and racist things not always in the context of comedy and SiriusXM had no issue. I love Artie to death but he attacked two people while working there and wasn’t fired, he wasn’t even suspended. Sal Governale has said numerous racist things that are mind blowingly ignorant but did the company say one single word to him? Don’t get confused if you hear his “apology” because Howard made him do it for a goof and it didn’t have any bearing on Sal’s job. Sal also has tweeted his genitalia many times on purpose and even started a hashtag called “Foreskin Friday”, where was SiriusXM’s outrage over this? Jamie Foxx called Wiggy Stern a “Slave Master” and Robin a “House (N-word)” on his radio show he does there and the company didn’t do a thing and would never ever fire Jamie Foxx. Lady Gaga’s newest song “Do what you want” promotes rape but do you think they won’t play that song a billion times? What about Chris Brown and his songs? He is one of the biggest pieces of garbage on earth and they play every single one of his songs nonstop. He beat up Rihanna and that is only one thing in a laundry list of crimes he has committed but again SiriusXM has no issue whatsoever playing his songs. What about Shade 45 or the other hardcore rap channels? They play songs that constantly promote violence, rape, drug use, sex and most of all use of the N-word constantly along with many other racist terms and those are definitely not under the umbrella of comedy. So is SiriusXM gonna stop playing songs that promote all this and delete those channels? I don’t think they should, do you? What about the hosts of those shows who constantly use the N-word or use racist terms about white people? Is SiriusXM gonna fire them? I don’t think they should, do you? I love DJ Whoo Kid and on O&A’s channel along with his own show he uses the N-word constantly. Do you think SiriusXM is gonna stop him from saying it or fire him? What about the callers who call into Whoo Kid’s show or shows he is on who use the N-Word, is the company gonna blacklist their calls or terminate their subscription ? They just did a Town Hall with 50 Cent who is constantly saying horrid stuff on Twitter yet did the company say a single thing to him? You may think this is some open&shut case about a radio host who said things that people perceive to be racist but it didn’t happen on their airwaves and it wasn’t unprovoked so let’s stop pretending that this was some normal firing. Mr. Cumia was attacked by a woman repeatedly for taking a picture in Times Square, not looking through her window, not in some creepy alley, Times Square and when he voiced his completely understandable disgust with some scumbag who attacked him he is the one to lose his job?!? Does that seem fair to you? You may not care because you probably aren’t an entertainer but how does this make any sense or seem like the right thing to do? By the way it was his own personal twitter which doesn’t seem to get enough attention in this fiasco by the media, he didn’t share these opinions on the shows twitter account so explain to me how this is even an issue at all. Twitter is a service you have to sign into or at the very least search out to see what is written. What’s even more baffling and hypocritical on SiriusXM’s part is Anthony has been talking about these issues for the last 20yrs and has never shied away from it so when SiriusXM suddenly acts like this is an anomaly it makes them look completely ridiculous because they have hired him over and over again and they absolutely knew what his views were. Lastly I’d like to point out again what the article sort of covered and that’s the fact that SiriusXM has made its company what it is by toting the motto “uncensored radio” which is what it was up until last Thursday when Anthony got fired. They have a right to fire anyone they want to and no one would ever disagree with that but what they fired Anthony over is complete BS and unless they fire every person who has ever made similar comments on their airwaves and twitter/social media along with never playing another song that says anything controversial and refuse to play the music of anyone who has said or done anything controversial then it will just look like a hypocritical firing that should’ve never happened.

I love when people who NEVER prescribe or ever listen to a show start stomping up and down that someone should be fired because they don’t like what they said. A lot of the humor surrounding the O&A show is about ball busting and offending people. I am not a racist, but I love listening to things that many may find offensive. Crude? Yes, but that’s a matter of opinion. If you don’t like it, turn the dial and move on.

I agree 100% that this was an opportunistic firing. SXM had no intention of resigning the show in October and this gave them an out. Personally, I’ve had either Sirius or XM since 1999 and I’m done with them. It was such a great concept that has just been run into the ground. It was a good run I guess.

Some of the most honest discussions about race I’ve ever heard have been on the o and a show.the fact that they didn’t have to filter their opinions was the reason I listened in the first place.dont forget to find a way to support Opie and Jim while telling sirius what you think

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